The Savage Guns [Tierra brutal] ** (1962, Richard Basehart, Don Taylor, Alex Nicol, Paquita Rico) – Classic Movie Review 9103

Don Taylor stars as a peaceful rancher named Mike Summers, who is plagued by bad guys led by the local land baron Ortega (José Nieto) but is helped by a wounded good guy gunslinger called Steve Fallon (Richard Basehart) he has taken in, in director Michael Carreras’s dour 1962 Spaghetti/ Paella Western movie The Savage Guns [Tierra brutal]. Alex Nicol also stars as Danny Pose, with Paquita Rico as Summers’s wife Franchea and Manolita Barroso [Maria Granada] as Franchea’s sister Juana.

The Savage Guns is set in 1870 in Sonora, Mexico, but Spain stands in, and it is a Spanish cast apart from the three American principals. The earnest, downbeat tone is kind of commendable but it hardly helps to make it very exciting, though there is eventually some decent action.

Hammer Films’s half share in the production numbers this among the small body of British Westerns, which include Shalako, A Town Called Bastard, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and Carry On Cowboy.

It was shot in 1961 in Almería, Andalucía, Spain, and Águilas, Murcia, Spain.

Hammer Films stalwarts Michael Carreras and Jimmy Sangster had formed Capricorn Productions, which turned out to be short lived.

Also in the cast are José Nieto, Fernando Rey, Félix Fernández, Francisco Camoiras, José Manuel Martin, Victor Bayo, Pilar Caballero, Antonio Fuentes, Sergio Mendizabal and Rafael Albaicio.

The Savage Guns [Tierra brutal] is directed by Michael Carreras, runs 83 minutes, is made by Capricorn Productions [Hammer Films] and Tecisa, is released by MGM, is written by Jimmy Sangster and Edmund Morris, based the story The San Siado Killings written by Peter R Newman, is shot in Metroscope and Metrocolor by Alfredo Fraile, is produced by Jimmy Sangster and José Gutiérrez Maesso, is scored by Anton Garcia Abril and is designed by Francisco Canet.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9103

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